Best Burnt Island Ventures Podcasts (2025)

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Craig Beckman - A Generational Shift in Membrane Design 46:13

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13d ago46:13

46:13

One of the reasons why working in water is fun is the people who work in it - dedicated, driven, modest, self-effacing, hard working, but with a lightness that comes from doing something that really matters. Craig Beckman personifies these qualities and then some, and he also happens to be working on a generational - and I really do mean that it's …

1
Will Hewes - Managing Water for a Hyperscaler 44:23

27d ago44:23

44:23

It's no secret that the so-called "hyperscalers"—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and others—are doing their hyperscaling in the context of the AI revolution. The pace of digital infrastructure buildout is mind-boggling—about $450 billion in 2024 and with no sign of slowing. All of this has implications for the water sector. So I wanted to talk to …

1
Shane Dyer - Iteration, Hiring, and Customer Voice 41:34

1M ago41:34

41:34

It's so fun when you feel like an investment has been dragged out of your hands. At the end of our deployment of our first fund, I was adamant that our final investments had to be blindingly obvious because the next best use of funds was to give more capital to companies we already knew were amazing. So when I met Shane Dyer, CEO of Irrigreen, the …

1
Megan Glover - The Outsider Becomes the Insider 36:41

2M ago36:41

36:41

When you hear a canary singing in the coal mine, you should stop and listen. Without torturing the metaphor too far, this is how I felt when I started working with Megan Glover at 120Water in 2017 as she started to build her business. The success of a business is predicated on the talent of the people running it, and Megan was important because she…

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Alex Fuglesang - A Deep Dive Into Desal, Literally 40:34

2M ago40:34

40:34

Sometimes things just strike you as dumb and then one day you understand why. The current model of desalination is a great example. It's something that everyone thinks that we at BIV should be invested in up to the eyeballs, and, of course, we support technologies that are pertinent to desal, but the legacy model is just a tough nut to crack. Ever …

1
Felicia Marcus: A Public Servant for our Era 47:28

3M ago47:28

47:28

Felicia Marcus is one of the most significant public servants in water, having served on the Board of Public Works for the City of LA, served as Regional Administrator for the EPA in Region 9, COO of the Trust for Public Land and Western Director of the NRDC. As if that wasn't enough, she was also the Chair of the State Water Resources Control Boar…

1
Scott Bryan - Pilots, Impact and Acceleration 42:09

3M ago42:09

42:09

I owe what I get to do every day here in a job I love to many people, but Scott Bryan really helped. In 2015, he took a chance on me to become the VP of Programming at Imagine H2O running the Accelerator, and it was a learning curve which laid the groundwork for what we do here at BIV. Scott is one of the most important figures in early stage water…

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SYNDICATED EPISODE - More Efficient EVs, From The Powertrain Up With Scalvy 34:47

3M ago34:47

34:47

𖥔 Note 𖥔 This is a syndicated podcast from the Climate Capital Podcast, which Nick hosted. Nick also works at Climate Capital. You'll find the format very similar to past Keep Cool podcast content - hope you enjoy! Follow the Climate Capital Podcast in general here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cc-pod/id1709396247 Nick will host episodes o…

1
Paul Hauffen - The Customer Inclusion Loop 46:07

4M ago46:07

46:07

True dyed-in-the-wool software pros are a valuable breed in water and Paul Hauffen is one of the best. A two-time entrepreneur, he sold his last company Sedaru, and, in a founding hiatus, is bringing his enormous experience to bear helping companies along their trajectory, partially as a BIV Venture Partner. Paul is a very wise man indeed and his i…

1
Mudasser Iqbal - AI, Water and Institutional Memory 42:18

4M ago42:18

42:18

There is a lot going on in AI right now, from the travails of ChatGPT to the technology being essentially single handedly responsible for the surge of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” and therefore the overall S&P 500 in 2024. But what does it mean for water? Mudasser Iqbal is a career technologist and an exceptional guy, previous CEO of Visenti b…

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Debra Coy - Earnings Calls, Inflection Points, and Perspective 41:44

6M ago41:44

41:44

Over the last decade, I've been so lucky to learn from seriously good water people, and Debra Coy is one of the best. Over four decades, she has built an extraordinary body of work from public markets analyst to XPV, the preeminent water investing firm that has been extraordinarily supportive to us, to her current independent role advising and sitt…

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Guillaume Clairet - Operations, Rule-Breaking and Erin Brockovich 37:58

7M ago37:58

37:58

We all know about the CEO in a company. When the company is small, the CEO does everything, and when it's big, the CEO sets the vision, hires the right people and makes sure they have what they need to be successful. But what about a layer deeper than that? Guillaume Clairet is a fascinating example of a world class COO. Now he's too modest to be k…

1
LIVE SHOW E71: Scaling highly versatile biogas tech, with Stephan Herrmann, CEO of Reverion, and Sebastian Heitmann, Co-Founder and Partner at Extantia Capital. 1:01:27

7M ago1:01:27

1:01:27

Description: Stephan Herrmann, Co-founder & CEO of Reverion, and Sebastian Heitmann, Co-Founder and Partner at Extantia Capital—an investor in deep decarbonization technologies—joined Nick for a live discussion in New York City to explore breakthroughs in Reverion’s biogas energy technologies and discuss the state of energy and climate tech in gene…

1
Sarah Brody - From Oceans to McKinsey 35:45

7M ago35:45

35:45

It's always worth paying attention to top-level consultants as crucial advisors to their usually enormous clients. They have their finger on the pulse of the practical needs of the market and are responsive when they see critical mass in an area. Sarah Brody runs the North American water practice of McKinsey, which she has restarted in response to …

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Michael Rigney - The Millenium Falcon of Heat Pump Water Heaters 39:06

8M ago39:06

39:06

The idea of an Overton Window when the conditions around a political issue change that in turn changes the nature of what is politically possible, is a useful one in assessing businesses. Sometimes conditions change enough in a market or sector that there is suddenly a significant window of opportunity for a founder to run through. We think that is…

1
Ifetayo Venner - Gatekeepers, Big Infrastructure, and Leadership 45:58

8M ago45:58

45:58

It's nice to have friends in high places, and in water, there are few places higher than the presidency of the Water Environment Federation, the core trade body for the wastewater industry. Ifetayo Venner and I got to know each other in 2017 when we both spoke at the opening session of WEFTEC, WEF’s annual gathering for the wastewater world, and we…

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Mae Stevens - Building the Case for Water on Capitol Hill 37:04

9M ago37:04

37:04

If I was to write a list of all the tricks we’re missing in water, it would be a lot, and somewhere near the very top would be lobbying - engagement with government on the federal and state level. I recognize we've made a lot of progress in the last five or six years in terms of securing capital for the required infrastructure renewal in the US, bu…

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Jorge Richardson - Water Access, Reliability, and Selfies with Bono 48:02

9M ago48:02

48:02

Jorge Richardson - Water Access, Reliability, and Selfies with Bono Sometimes businesses pop up that take a bit of time to make sense. HOPE Hydration is one of those businesses. When I first met Jorge Richardson in 2021, he was chock full of confidence, like a lot of entrepreneurs in 2021, with an admirably aggressive plan, but I couldn't quite see…

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E70: Making greener steel at significant scale with Tim Hill of Nucor 49:15

10M ago49:15

49:15

Description: Nick is joined by Tim Hill, the General Manager of Sustainability Solutions for Nucor Corporation. Nucor is the largest steel producer and recycler in North America. Plus, Nucor produces steel via a larger circular and electricity-powered process; their steel uses recycled scrap and is made in electric arc furnaces (EAF) instead of bla…

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Matt Rosenthal - Business Beneath Our Feet 47:43

10M ago47:43

47:43

There's an old saying from east London: “Where there's muck, there's brass.” Essentially, what this means is that the management of the dirtier side of life is invariably an opportunity for a decent business. Sewers are a big business. There are a million miles of them beneath our feet in the US, and about 300 million of them need to be inspected a…

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Peter Fiske - From Academic to Entrepreneur (and beyond) 45:25

10M ago45:25

45:25

Peter Fiske has packed a lot into his career, from being a rare successful academic to entrepreneur crossover to his current role as head of NAWI, the National Alliance for Water Innovation. He's just someone who loves building stuff, and he's done a lot from building and selling PAX Water Technologies to setting up the infrastructure for the radic…

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Josh Mackanic - Making the Unseen Seen 33:36

11M ago33:36

33:36

It's well documented that we at Burnt Island Ventures love founder-market fit, but we really love it when it leads us to a founder and company that represents that fundamental leap forward in the operation of that market. Josh Mackanic is one of those founders. His two decades of experience in infrastructure has led him to build a platform people h…

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E69: Understanding the full scope of the Loan Programs Office with Arpita Bhattacharyya 48:00

11M ago48:00

48:00

Nick is joined by Arpita Bhattacharyya, Chief Climate Officer at the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, where she helps understand common barriers that slow down deployment in the Loan Programs Office's $200+ billion portfolio of deals. Her work also entails understanding the community engagement, equity, and communication considerations …

1
Paul Vacquier - Trust, Crucibles, and Kevin Hart 54:44

11M ago54:44

54:44

We talk a lot about founder market fit. It's a crucial component of founder selection because of the simple fact that founders who really understand their industries are very unlikely to build something that people don't want. There is no gap between the perceived reality of their market and the actual reality of their market. An awful lot of ventu…

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Matt Johnson - Constraints, Sequencing, and Finding the Fun 44:26

12M ago44:26

44:26

People do business with people they like, and Matt Johnson is one of the most likable people I have met in the last 10 years. He is a cocktail of curiosity, energy, reflectiveness, enthusiasm, and both left and right brains that come together in a genuinely compelling person. And his company is a reflection of him and his co-founder, Bibi - a pheno…

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E68: Investing in water with Tom Ferguson, Founder and Managing Partner at Burnt Island Ventures 45:39

12M ago45:39

45:39

Nick is joined by Tom Ferguson, Founder and Managing Partner at Burnt Island Ventures, one of the first venture capital firms focused on investing in startups driving innovation in water-focused applications and industries. Despite touching nearly everything on Earth, water is an under-discussed, under-invested in, and under-resourced category. As …

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Nicole Neeman Brady - Intrapreneurship, Entrepreneurship and Public Service 38:32

1y ago38:32

38:32

Nicole Neeman Brady is a real standout in the world of water. An entrepreneur, an intrapreneur fund manager, mentor to countless emerging water professionals, she has packed a lot into her time in the sector. She's currently a managing director with Renewable Resources Group, where she oversaw the raising and deployment of the $927 million sustaina…

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E67: Decarbonizing hydrogen and carbon black by splitting methane with Monolith Materials CEO, Rob Hanson 43:32

1y ago43:32

43:32

Description: Nick is joined by Rob Hanson, the CEO of Monolith, a company building methane pyrolysis plants to turn methane into hydrogen and carbon black, both of which are critical products for global industries and which are predominantly produced with significant emissions footprints today. Monolith’s process aims to decarbonize hydrogen and ca…

1
Steve Kloos - Thinking Right to Left 47:32

1y ago47:32

47:32

In 2015, we still used those table speakers for conference calls. Remember those? Kind of looked like a spaceship. I had just started at Imagine H2O, and the first external call I had on my second day was with someone who was very highly regarded by my colleague Ivy Nguyen, who is now a BIV IC member. Hi, Ivy! That someone was Steve Kloos, partner …

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E66: Building flywheels of irreversible momentum for methane monitoring & measurement 38:18

1y ago38:18

38:18

Description: Nick is joined by Jigar Shah, the Director of the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, and Ian Dickinson, the CEO of LongPath Technologies, to discuss the commercialization of novel methane monitoring technologies to accelerate lower-hanging fruit in methane mitigation. Specifically, Jigar, Ian, and Nick discuss the ongoing methane measurement …

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Dr. Reinhard Hübner, CEO at SKion 45:40

1y ago45:40

45:40

It's important to have people you look up to in the industry you choose. And by "look up to," I mean to be consistently, wildly impressed by what they're building, their intellect, their clarity of thought, their track record, and how they comport themselves. Reinhard Hübner is one of those people for me. As the CEO at SKion, he has built an undeni…

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E65: Building the common operating picture for climate action with Vibrant Planet 44:26

1y ago44:26

44:26

Nick and Allison Wolff, CEO of Vibrant Planet, discuss the platform Allison and company are building to accelerate environmentally and economically sound outcomes in natural resource management, wildfire risk mitigation, and more. Whether your interest stems from curiosity around optimal use cases for AI and machine learning in climate action or na…

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SPECIAL EPI: How Glassdome digitizes and accelerates industrial decarbonization 45:58

1y ago45:58

45:58

Nick and Josh Charnin-Aker, Glassdome’s co-founder and CTO, as well as TJ Yoon, Product Manager, discuss how Glassdome is building a platform and a deeply experienced team to accelerate sustainability in manufacturing, heavy industry, and more. Not only does this involve building a first-in-class digital product to help customers like SK manage thi…

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Anthea Sargeaunt, CEO and Co-founder of 2S Water 47:08

1y ago47:08

47:08

Anthea Sargeaunt is the CEO and Co-founder of 2S Water. Multivariate, real-time non-contact sensing is one of the holy grails of water management. Getting it right will allow all stakeholders to understand what is in their water in real time. And if we can get it really right, this knowledge will allow a host of improvements in water management, in…

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E63: Literally making It rain with Augustus Doricko of Rainmaker 41:26

1y ago41:26

41:26

Nick and Augustus Doricko, Founder and CEO of Rainmaker, discuss the viability of cloud seeding to (quite literally) make it rain more. Whether for farmers dealing with drought or depleted aquifers or for adaptive purposes such as mitigating wildfires, the potential applications of cloud seeding and making rain more abundant are endless. Nick and A…

1
David Stanton, CEO at Cleanwater1, Inc. 45:08

1y ago45:08

45:08

When I started Burnt Island Ventures, I needed help. I needed help of all kinds. But one of the things I needed most as a first-time fund manager was credibility in the decision-making process. Alongside Ivy Nguyen, David Stanton agreed to become a member of our investment committee, and he put a crucial brick in the BIV credibility wall. In this e…

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E62: Infrastructure investing for the energy transition with John Skrinar, Partner at Cresta 46:32

1y ago46:32

46:32

Description: Nick and John Skrinar, Partner at Cresta Fund Management, explore the intersection of infrastructure investment, private equity, and the energy transition in the U.S. in 2024. Specifically, Nick and John discuss the merits of technologies ranging from carbon capture to hydrogen and renewable natural gas while also casting an eye to the…

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Adam Tank, Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer at Transcend 42:48

1y ago42:48

42:48

Adam Tank's trajectory, from early leadership roles at GE to his entrepreneurial endeavors, offers a wealth of profound insights into the critical trilogy of water, technology, and entrepreneurship at the heart of this podcast. His experiences navigating the dynamic landscape of the water industry, as shared here today, offer valuable perspectives …

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E61: Making more climate resilient chocolate with Kawa Project and CEO, Aaron Feigelman 36:50

1y ago36:50

36:50

Nick and Aaron Feigelman, the CEO of Kawa Project, dive deep on the world of waste-to-value alternatives to commodities like cocoa and palm oil. Specifically Nick and Aaron discuss why cocoa prices are soaring, how there’s a ton of ‘climate’ stories inherent to this dynamic, and the work Aaron’s company is doing to make cocoa alternatives that are …

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John Bertrand, Co-Founder and CEO of Daupler 41:37

1y ago41:37

41:37

John Bertrand is our kind of founder, a wastewater engineer who has operated inside and outside the utility fence - he understands his market upside down. What he saw in his time in the utility world led him to wonder if the messy world of managing the constant stream of incoming data from utility customers - calls, text messages, 311 alerts, voice…

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E60: Keeping methane out of the atmosphere by using it on Earth, with Windfall Bio 1:00:01

1+ y ago1:00:01

1:00:01

Description: Nick and Josh Silverman, the CEO of Windfall Bio, discuss his companies novel methane utilization technologies while casting a wide net across the climate tech ecosystem to discuss dynamics inherent to the methane ‘story’ as a whole and why methane mitigation deserves more attention from stakeholders across climate and energy (as well …

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Tyler Henke, Co-Founder and CEO of Ziptility 39:35

1+ y ago39:35

39:35

People always bang on about disruption, and usually it's meaningless. Some very rare founders should bang on about disruption because they're actually doing it, but don't. I like to think it's humility, but more importantly, it's because they decided to go and solve a real, deeply felt problem in the market, usually in an overlooked sector, and hap…

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E59: SPECIAL EPISODE: Everything Electrification, with Quincy Lee & Ramez Naan 1:00:01

1+ y ago1:00:01

1:00:01

Nick, Quincy Lee, the CEO of Electric Era, and Ramez Naam, a highly experienced climate tech and energy analyst and investor, dive deep on all things energy and electrification in 2024. Starting with a focus on mobility and the power sector, Quincy, Mez, and Nick touch on topics as far reaching as geoengineering, the power of narratives, and their …

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E58: ‘Cyclical’ plastic recycling for a more circular economy with MacroCycle 36:55

1+ y ago36:55

36:55

Description: Nick and the MacroCycle team discuss a paradigmatic shift from mechanical to chemical recycling in plastics recycling, why it matters, and how MacroCycle is gearing up for their first-of-a-kind recycling facility in 2024. In addition, they discuss: Differences between ‘traditional’ mechanical recycling and chemical recycling How MacroC…

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Matt Swindle, Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder at NLine Energy, Inc. 45:11

1+ y ago45:11

45:11

Persistence is an underrated quality of the best entrepreneurs. VCs never think they underrate it, but they do. The public only ever sees the glory and fireworks when an entrepreneurial story works. But it's the application, the effort, the persistence that lies behind every great outcome that is the primary determinant of that outcome. Matt Swindl…

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E57: Hot or not with Albert Wenger? Climate & climate tech in 2024 42:36

1+ y ago42:36

42:36

Nick and Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures (and a preeminent investor in general), discuss the state of climate, climate and energy work in general, and climate venture capital in 2024 and beyond. Specifically, Nick and Albert dive deep on: How our collective response to climate change so far has been a bit ‘meh’ The ‘low ene…

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George Hawkins, Founder and CEO of Moonshot Missions 51:38

1+ y ago51:38

51:38

George Hawkins is one of those people who always elicits a smile from those who know him when he comes up in conversation, even when he's not there. The smile also comes when he is present, but the absence of the smile is telling. He is perhaps one of the most admired figures in the US water market, and possibly even in the global market, and for g…

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S7 E5: What 2024 has in store for climate tech venture capital, with Katie McClain of Energize Capital. 40:43

1+ y ago40:43

40:43

Nick and Katie McClain, Partner and COO at Energize Capital, a venture fund focused on climate and energy technologies, discuss what’s ‘hot’ right now in climate venture capital, besides for, you know, the rate at which the Earth is warming. Nick and Katie also take a keen look at what to expect in 2024 and beyond. Specifically, Nick and Katie dive…

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Wayne Byrne, Co-Founder and Director of Method Capital and Venture Partner at Burnt Island Ventures 41:53

1+ y ago41:53

41:53

Repeat entrepreneurs are a special breed. They have essentially proved that they operate through skill and not luck, and Wayne Byrne is one of the most skillful. I met him in 2015 in San Francisco as he was picking up one of many awards for OxyMem as they built towards their acquisition by DuPont, his fourth exit in an illustrious career. He's been…

1
Christine Boyle - Founder of Valor Water Analytics and Partner at Burnt Island Ventures 40:07

1+ y ago40:07

40:07

I first met Christine Boyle about a week before I specialized in water at Imagine H20's annual winners announcement, where she was receiving the award for Best Early-stage Water Company in 2015. Fast forward almost eight years, she has been an extraordinary guide and mentor. After selling her company Valor Water Analytics to Xylem in 2018, she rema…